OmegaT

3.8 out of 5

Out of 10 user reviews.

Features
• Fuzzy matching
• Automatic propagation of translations
• Unlimited number of translation memories (TMX format)
• Unlimited number of glossaries (CSV and TBX format)
• Looking up terms in the project, in reference translation memories, in glossaries and in reference documents
• Projects with an unlimited number of folders and files, in all accepted formats
• Team projects with an unlimited number of translators
• Right to left and bidirectional writing management
• Tag protection and validation
• Morphological recognition • Spell checking (Hunspell)
• Linguistic checking (LanguageTool)
• Dictionaries (mono and multilingual) in StarDict and Lingvo DSL formats
• Machine translation (Google Translate, Microsoft Translator, Apertium, Yandex, MyMemory)
• Public API for plugins: Additional file formats (Okapi), Local machine translation (Apertium)
• Running scripts written in Groovy and JavaScript
• Auto-completion from glossary entries, abbreviation list, history completion and history prediction
• Graphic aligner for all supported formats
• External search on the Internet

Compare to:
Trados Studio 2022

(2 reviews)

Compare to:
memoQ

(41 reviews)

Compare to:
Trados Studio 2021

(13 reviews)

5 out of 5

How easy is it to learn?

Excellent CAT tool, don't hesitate to try it

Review by 

John Holland 13:07 Jan 26, 2013. OmegaT is a reliable, feature-filled tool that has the added advantage of being free (libre, GPL) software. I use OmegaT on Linux.

I especially appreciate the glossary feature, which I use to keep track of technical terms. I often work with texts in French and English that refer to concepts originally expressed in German, and I use the "comments" area of the glossary to document my term research for future reference.

Users should be prepared to do a bit of research to use this tool. It's not difficult at all, but it's important to invest some time to learn the different features, such as keyboard shortcuts (add all tags, replace with fuzzy match, etc.) and other aspects of configuration and usage. The current documentation can be found on the OmegaT "Files" download page on SourceForge, on the same page as the program download:
Example SourceForge "Files" download page with documentation in PDF format

In addition to the ProZ OmegaT forum, other sources of information and help are the OmegaT website (don't miss the "HOWTOs") and the invaluable Yahoo! users group:
Documentation on the OmegaT website
OmegaT on Yahoo!

It also is useful to extend OmegaT with different plug-ins and related applications. Here's what I use:
LanguageTool plug-in: Grammar checking
Tokenizers plug-in: Better text matching
Okapki Filters plug-in: For translating additional file formats

Okapi CheckMate utility:
Quality control checks on TMX files, especially helpful for checking that segments do not exceed a given length
Priorview utility:
Live document preview, useful for visualizing layout of paragraph breaks when editing.

All in all, I highly recommend OmegaT. Just make sure to read the documentation to get the most out of this excellent tool.

3 out of 5

How easy is it to learn?

quite dependable and generally efficient to use

Review by 

Scott Ellsworth 00:55 Apr 23, 2013. This is the main CAT tool I use. After using it a while, I tried out five other tools and concluded that this is in fact the best choice for me. I'm able to use it pretty quickly, and I've never seen it crash.

pluses:
* quick to start up a new project
* friendly, helpful user forum (on the Yahoo group; I haven't looked at the one here on Proz yet)
* auto-propagation of 100%-matched segments works in a very convenient and efficient way
* when you're at the last segment and you advance further, it puts you back at the first segment again (such a simple and practical feature; I don't know why other programs don't do this)
* very quick and easy to add a glossary entry
* doesn't require the user to adhere to bureaucratic procedures of approving and/or confirming translated segments

minuses:
* doesn't protect tags or offer to display them differently
* names of menu items at the top don't show up until I click on them (perhaps only this way in Linux)
* I have to triple-click on a word to select it (perhaps only this way in Linux)
* the initial loading or reloading of a project can be a little slow, though only a little
* user documentation is not complete for all the newer features

1 out of 5

How easy is it to learn?

A nightmare

Review by 

Liuska Sanna 18:49 Sep 28, 2019. I am a total beginner and I am lost. I downloaded the user guide and every time I follow one of the instructions there is something that blocks me.

Just an example: downloading a dictionnary; well first of all the pair of languages I need is not to be found in the Omega T wiki. I try to download another one: good luck in understanding how to open the .tar format.

Tried to use Microsoft translator, I follow the instructions again but what is meant to happen does not happen.

In short: a total waste of time so far.

3 out of 5

How easy is it to learn?

Starting is easy, but then...

Review by 

Krista Roest 19:33 Feb 27, 2016. I use this tool for a while now. Starting is easy, you can quickly start working with it. But then... trying to figure out all the features is quite complicated. And perhaps I have a limited version, but I don't see a lot of features. The program is not very self explanatory, I constantly am searching in the help function and on support sites. Is it possible to allign existing translations? I don't know... Technical features are not easy to ajust eather; like how to enlarge the screen: I c=only managed by enlarging the lettertype.

4 out of 5

How easy is it to learn?

Clean and open alternative

Review by 

Anil Duggirala 02:33 Dec 1, 2023. Been using it for years.
It does not tie you to any service. Projects are simple folder structures, everything is out in the open. You can get a translation done quickly. Provides all features I could want from a CAT tool. Free, cross-platform and open source
The user community will answer all sorts of questions in their mailing list, everyone is very helpful, even with newbies.